While crossing the Rocky Mountains, they were moving boulders by hand out of their path. Jackson's trip started in a hastily purchased Winton that he named the "Vermont" four days after he made the bet. Dr. H. Nelson Jackson and Sewall K. Crocker (and Bud!) Challenged by a sales manager for Maxwell automobiles, By all accounts,Horatios bet was one made in the innocence of drunken exuberance. The trip began after a discussion in a San Francisco mens club as to the feasibility of a transcontinental auto crossing. The thick coating of mud gave evidence that it had been somewhere and that somewhere a long way off. Jackson had spent "Everyone pooh- poohed the idea of even attempting such a journey.". They were facing a daunting task. At first they lost their cookware, but while still in California, Jackson also lost his glasses. (Hollister Jackson was serving as Lieutenant Governor of Vermont when he died in the Great Vermont Flood of 1927. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. In addition to owning and publishing the Burlington Daily News, he was head of the Burlington Trust Company, and owned and operated radio station WCAX (now WVMT). Contents 1 Early life and medical career 2 Cross-country drive 2.1 Wager and preparation 2.2 Journey 3 Later life I asked her. Jackson decided to give it a try. According to the Winton Companys numbering system, the car he bought was Number 1684 but he chose to christen it with the name. . They would finally begin to make up much needed time after so many days spent waiting for parts, repairs and money back in the Rocky Mountain high country. THE FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL AUTOMOBILE ROAD TRIP In 1903, a man named Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson became the first person to drive across the country, from coast to coast. But if there was one thing Horatio had, it was a steadfast commitment to the dream. Whether or not a bet was really made, it did happen rather suddenly. The trek will begin at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco with a gala sendoff, including the attendance of filmmaker Ken Burns, who recently completed a documentary about the first cross-country drive. Traveled at 40 mph, and "said they sometimes spurted up to 60 miles an hour.". She returned home by train, allowing him to take his adventure by automobile. Sign up to get updates about the film and future projects from Ken Burns and Florentine Films. I have lost 5 days. Here they prepare to light the acetylene gas headlamps. Watch me now come to you.Nel. "Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip", Learn how and when to remove this template message, He'd Have to Get Under Get Out and Get Under (to Fix Up His Automobile), The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God, Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horatio%27s_Drive:_America%27s_First_Road_Trip&oldid=1107453344, Documentary films about United States history, Articles needing additional references from May 2019, All articles needing additional references, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 30 August 2022, at 02:26. The car is at the shop & they are to work all night so that I can get away in the morning I go from here to Buffalo. It was one of the few original parts never replaced during the entire journey. Heeding the failed attempt by automobile pioneer Alexander Winton (founder of the Winton Motor Carriage Company, which manufactured Jackson's car) to cross the deserts of Nevada and Utah, Jackson decided to take a more northerly route through the Sacramento Valley and along the Oregon Trail. Somewhere near Caldwell, Idaho, Jackson and Crocker obtained a dog, a bulldog named Bud. It took five months, and covered more than 10,000 miles. Having no mechanical experience, Jackson convinced a young mechanic and chauffeur, Sewall K. Crocker, to serve as his travel companion, mechanic, and backup driver. I shall write you when I can & shall depend on you to keep them posted.Yours till New York, Nelson.[P.S.] Upon reaching the threshold of Jackson's garage, the Vermont's drive chain snapped. As soon as they left San Francisco though, trouble began tochase them down. The film is based on the book of the same name by Dayton Duncan. The way the streets of Lakeview were lined with people Tuesday afternoon, one would think a circus was coming to town, or a 4th of July procession was about to pass. They were also given a 108-mile (174km) misdirection by a woman so that she could send them to the spot where her family could see an automobile.[6]. What roads did exist, were holdovers from the wagon train trading routes of the 1850s, 60s, and 70s the Old West of cowboy and Indian lore. In addition to the effect the rough roads had on their possessions, it also took its toll on the Winton and their equipment. California to New York. [17][18], In 1944, Jackson gave his Winton, the Vermont, to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it is preserved.[6]. When the tires failed to materialize, however, they continued on after a three-day wait. Alturas, California. The state of Vermont was so alarmed that it passed a law requiring every auto to be preceded down the street with a person waving a red flag. You have done everything in the world to make me happy.I shall just tear up the ground until I can be with you. Jackson and Crocker were en route, but could not overtake them. On the first night of the journey they discovered that the side lanterns were too dim. At their next stop, Jackson had to wire his wife to send them money to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Of course, these guidebooks were only published in the more-populated East at the time. When the travelers reached Omaha, Nebraska on July 12 they were able to stitch together a few paved roads in between the stretches of older wagon trails. $8,000 on the trip, including hotel rooms, gasoline, tires, parts, supplies, food, and the cost of the Winton. On our way back we were stopped by a man and asked if I didnt want a dog for a mascot. When night came on we made camp beside the car, and having lost our cooking outfit and provisions, and [it] being an uninhabited region went to bed without any supper. I would be wrong. used a block and tackle to pull the car out of mudholes. Most. Later, somewhere in Idaho, they lost Jacksons coat which contained most of the travelers money. Jackson was unable to buy a new tire, but purchased some used inner tubes. By CATHERINE SEIPP. I am tired & got to get up early in the morning & damn anxious to get you in my arms. On a visionary whim and a $50 bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson became the first person to drive an automobile across the continent. Sewall Crocker was a 22 year-old former bicycle racer who had been working in a gas engine factory when Dr. Jackson hired him to be the mechanic and co-driver for the journey. ), additional tanks to hold extra oil and gasoline for emergencies. Quite a flurry of excitement was erected Saturday evening by the arrival of an automobile. This we did the result being that we ran across the desert to Swanton Falls a distance, out of our way, 38 miles. If Im laughing, even at myself, then Im not crying, right? Its subject is the first cross-country automobile journey in the United States, which occurred during the summer of 1903. The trip had to be called off after a one-armed bicyclist made up a 10- day head start from New York and passed the hapless car before it reached Syracuse. African American History Curatorial Collective. "HORATIO CAM" DIGITAL FOOTAGE Allen Moore ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Susanna Steisel COORDINATING PRODUCER Pam Tubridy Baucom FIELD PRODUCER Craig Mellish NARRATED BY Keith David THE VOICE OF HORATIO. Items continued to be lost, including another pair of Jackson's glasses. After Cheyenne, Jackson and Horatio both knew that the hard part of the journey was now behind them. Jackson attended the schools of Toronto and Toronto's collegiate institute. "In the last three months I've been driving it every day in preparation for the trip and every day something breaks," Kesling said. Tires, somewhat expectedly, continued to blow out forcing them at times to wind rope around the wheel so it could act as rudimentary tire but at least they could go on. All attempts heretofore to go overland in an automobile have come to grief either through the machines breaking down or because long stretches of sand were encountered through which the horseless carriages could make no headway. Who knew there were, Are there any other thesaurus lovers out there? This article related to a made-for-TV documentary film is a stub. Finally, the end is in sight! With lots of love to all I am yours.NelsonP.S. [1] H. Nelson Jackson and Bertha Wells were the parents of daughter Bertha (19061984), the wife of George B. Kolk and the longtime editor of the Burlington Daily News, of which her father was publisher.[2]. They are repeatedly forced to use shovels and the block and tackle to push and drag the car through sand and mud. Hmm, perhaps youve never stopped to think about it before. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. He also had the sense to hire a good bicycle-turned-car mechanic in Crocker. A former U.S. Forest Service firefighter, he has traveled extensively and covered a wide variety of issues during his career, including the Beijing Olympics, Hurricane Katrina, illegal American tourism in Cuba and a 40-day cross country car trip commemorating the history of automobile travel in America. I am a little ahead of time but Lord knows when I will get time to write again. I find it fascinating how similar my own road trip experiences were in some ways to the very first cross-country journey. In the spring of 1903, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson became the first person to cross the United States in a car, following portions of what is now US 30 in Idaho and Wyoming. They left from New York and traveled so slowly that a one-armed bicyclist who started 10 days after them passed them before they made it to Syracuse at which point they abandoned the attempt. It was a fascinating story, full of experiences that I could totally relate to while at the same time it was an adventure I could hardly imagine. Horatio's letter to Bertha | May 31, 1903 . The Winton Touring Car "Vermont" and Bud Googles are displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History until this day. We buried our car completely in one and after working a half-day to get it out again, three Italians came along, each packing a heavy bag. [12] While attached to the 313th Infantry, 79th Division as a surgeon, Jackson was wounded near Montfaucon during the MeuseArgonne Offensive. After removing the backseat to make room for more gear, they packed the following items to begin the long journey: Unfortunately, a lot of their gear bounced out the back as they drove without them realizing it and several things were lost including two pairs of Jacksons eyeglasses. When we get there the worst will be over.I can run the car as well as Crocker & have rather surprised him We take 2 hours on and 2 off at the wheel. 2023 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Allegedly Jackson made a $50 bet that he could drive from San Francisco to New York in less than 90 days. The threat of the other teams would spur Jackson and Horatio on, pushing them to step up their pace across the unending Great Plains of Nebraska and beyond. Together, both events would dramatically alter the course of exploration and adventure for the next century. The trip took 64 days, including numerous delays while the two men waited for parts or paused to hoist the Winton up and over a gully. Horatio Nelson Jackson departed San Francisco onMay 23rd, 1903 for what was to become Americas first ever road trip and all because of a 50 dollar bet made just 5 days prior. "That's why I'm optimistic. They are all like a lot of kids I have made arrangements to have the Winton agent at New York to take you up the Hudson to meet me. [6] Newspapers at the time gave a variety of stories of how Bud was acquired, including that he was stolen; in a letter to his wife, Nelson said a man sold him the dog for $15[9] (equivalent to $452 in 2021[3]). The canine was quickly fitted with a pair of goggles and, from then on, got second billing only to the "whizz wagon," as one newspaper called the "Vermont. He purchased a 1903 Winton Click on each stop of the journey to learn. At Mountain Home, Idaho, citizens warned them that the Oregon Trail was not good further east, so Jackson and Crocker veered off their original course along the southern edge of the Sawtooth Mountains. "From Sea to Sea in a Horseless Carriage", Dr. H.N. Location. So Bud is now with us.We stopped at Nampa and had lunch at the Dewey Hotel. [6] Before reaching Cheyenne, however, the car's wheel bearings gave out, and Crocker had to talk a farmer into letting them have the wheel bearings of his mowing machine. Darling Swipes,The car is at the shop & they are to work all night so that I can get away in the morning. He was active in several businesses, including a granite manufacturing company owned by his brother Hollister. On their arrival, the mud besmirched and travel stained vehicle which had borne them so faithfully and sturdily over fifty-six hundred miles of roads between the Pacific and the Atlantic was housed in a garage in West 58th Street. Jackson was possessed of a deep thirst for adventure, and his remarkable story chronicles the very beginning of the restless road trips that soon became a way of life in America. We leave in the morning for Oroville the last railway point we will have until we strike Ontario, [Oregon]. Explore a chronology of the invention of the automobile. The trip, sparked by a $50 gentlemen's wager, took 63 days. Peter Fimrite is The Chronicle's lead science reporter, covering environmental, atmospheric and ecosystem science. Incidentally, half a ton of Nebraska clay, which it has gathered during the past few days, will be removed Monday Eve.Darling Swipes:While I think of it I want you to order two full sets more of the kodak pictures & have one set sent to Mrs. B. D. Crocker Tacoma, Wash. Keep the other set for me & bring all pictures & photos to N.Y. when you come to meet me there that is if you care to come.Well old girl I have brought the car to its birthplace & a great reception it got. On June 6th however, the car finally suffered a severe mechanical issue forcing them to stop all forward progress near Burns, Oregon for several days. The 1903 Winton trip "was a pivotal moment in American automotive history," said Roger White, curator of an exhibition later this year at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History called "America on the Move." Yet the young retired doctor, along with a mechanical assistant and a dog, took up the . The rough trek towards Oregon required them to haul the car across deep streams with the block and tackle. (3) The car's 'cyclometer' fell off before crossing Idaho, leaving no way to tell how fast or how far they traveled for the remainder of the trip. The next day they arrived in Ontario, Oregon, where supplies waited for them. In 1903 there were only 150 miles of paved roads in the entire nation and most people had never seen a "horseless buggy" - but that did not stop Horatio Nelson Jackson, a 31-year-old Vermont doctor, who impulsively bet $50 that he could drive his 20-horsepower automobile from San Francisco to New York City. Jackson was unable to replenish the tire he blew but was however able to purchase some slightly used inner tubes. They have been very short & dear ones to me. [Horatio Nelson Jackson]. Occasionally horses and cars gave her The public's perception of this newfangled conveyance took a deep public relations dive on Sept. 13, 1899, when Henry H. Bliss stepped off a streetcar in Manhattan and was flattened by an electric-powered taxicab, becoming the first automobile fatality in the country. Thankfully, they could then manage about 250 miles a day. A map of Horatio's route and his 63-day itinerary The Gear After removing the backseat to make room for more gear, they packed the following items to begin the long journey: sleeping bags cooking gear rubber mackintoshes for themselves and the car (remember - no roof, no windshield!) Jackson had now been given two challenges - the time limit he was given and the two other drivers who believed they could beat him. After 63 days on the road, the expedition reached New York. With them they brought little more than a couple of coats, some protective canvas suits, a couple of sleeping bags, some blankets, canteens, a water bag, an ax, a shovel, a telescope, some bicycle repair tools, a few spare parts, a block and tackle, extra cans gasoline and oil, a camera, a rifle, a shotgun, and a couple of pistols. He remained on duty until severely wounded by high-explosive shells, when he was obliged to evacuate.[16]. This physical limitation defined the spaces people occupied at the last turn of the century and made wandering beyond these informal limits rare and difficult. When Im writing something, I want to use the perfect word to get my meaning across. Marker is on Soda Point Power Plant Road near Reservoir Road, on the right when traveling south. Long distance travel was done by train. Proper roads were so few and far between at this point, that there were no maps. This is a carousel. a tow. In 1903, H. Nelson Jackson, Sewall Crocker, Questions? Indeed had a flying machine lit down in their midst it would not have created greater astonishment. Nell Richardson, Alice Burke, and the Golden Flier, 1916. Jackson (at the wheel) enlisted Sewall Crocker as his mechanic and co-driver, and bought a used Winton touring car. Funding provided by General Motors, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, and the Park Foundation. This growing glimmer of hope eventually attracted the attention of the Press, who would anticipate their next town arrival and show up to document their adventures. The duo was assisted in Sacramento by bicyclists who offered them road maps. York City. Tom Hanks provided the voice-over narration for Horatio Nelson Jackson. A few companies had started to put out guidebooks with detailed instructions on how to get from one town to the next. Jackson and Crocker set off from San Francisco at 1 p.m. on May 23, 1903. The only mishap happened just east of Buffalo, New York, when the Vermont ran into a hidden obstacle in the road and Jackson, Crocker, and Bud were thrown from the car. It is generally believed that Kesling will make it farther than Jackson before the first breakdown, which happened barely 15 miles outside of San Francisco on the 1903 trip, when a tire blew. On July 26, 1903, Horatio Nelson Jackson, a 31-year-old Vermont doctor, and his 22-year-old mechanic, Sewall Crocker, became the first to cross the United States in an automobile. [6], Jackson continued to reside in Burlington, Vermont, with his wife Bertha and Bud the dog. Two other motoring partieseach anxious to claim the title of first to drive across countrydeparted while The amazing journey of Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, and the first successful car trip across the United States, has been commemorated in a documentary film by the celebrated Ken Burns, "Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip", which debuts Monday, October 6th, at 9:00 p.m. on PBS. His traveling companions were Sewall K. Crocker and a bulldog, Bud. Want to know what happened? Have you ever wondered about the first cross-country road trip? The party went to the Hollenden Hotel for a clean-up and for supper while the faithful bull dog mascot remained in charge and fought flies and kept off inquisitive newsboys. , The route of US 30 traces its origin to the early 1900s. After delivering their luggage to the section boss we started on for Bitter Creek, crossing two rivers over the railroad bridge. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, the trio took a short break as they waited for more money to come through the wire, and repaired yet another mechanical failure, this time to the wheel bearings.